Day 80: Obesity is an Underlying Condition

Today's title is a public service announcement for the BBC, which appears to believe otherwise. They reported that a 51-year-old obese male nurse from Northumberland "did not have any underlying health conditions" when he died at home of a seemingly mild case of coronavirus. His daughter described him as "slightly overweight, but otherwise fit and healthy."

PlagueBlog notes that "otherwise" fitness is not known to negate your pre-existing conditions, and obesity has been observed to be the most significant underlying factor after age in NYC hospital admissions:

"Prior to COVID-19, we already knew that obesity is a risk factor for infection in general and more severe complications, and this is particularly true for respiratory infections," Poland said.

During the 2009 H1N1 epidemic in 2009, adults with body mass indexes over 30 were 3.1 times more likely to die from the infection than people of lower weights, while adults with body mass indexes over 40 were 7.6 times more likely to die.

In other world news, Spain has exceeded 200,000 cases, and Iran has exceeded China's case count. Next up is Russia, which, while comfortably under 50,000 cases at the moment, seems to have some trouble brewing. Reuters reports they've quarantined about 15,000 troops as part of cancelling Victory Day celebrations on May 9th.

It's Patriots' Day here in Massachusetts, but it doesn't feel the same without the Boston Marathon or the annual reenactment of the Battle of Lexington. In even more depressing news, the Boston Globe published 16 pages of obituaries this Sunday (April 19th), a significant increase over last year's seven page spread. (Reports of only 15 pages are inaccurate.) The previous Sunday's count was 11 pages, and a week before that it was nine.

P.S. Reuters reports that one of two additional Ebola patients in Beni, DRC, has escaped the treatment center and has not yet been found. The current case count is six, though one patient is still only known from the WHO's case count. Besides Ebola, the Congo is also battling COVID-19, measles, and cholera outbreaks.

P.P.S. Since the Massachusetts Department of Public Health appears to be taking Patriots' Day off of coronavirus reporting, PlagueBlog instead brings you another pair of Germ Boats. Lucky #26 and #27 are the Royal Caribbean sister ships Oasis of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas, respectively. (The latter is the world's largest cruise ship.) Three weeks ago, Royal Caribbean Cruises started evacuating sick crew off both ships to hospitals on the Florida mainland, without actually admitting to the coronavirus outbreak among the crew still on board. Today, the death toll among the ships' crew reached 3 with the death of a 41-year-old Indonesian man who had been a waiter on #26. A Filipino man who had been a bartender aboard #26 died on Saturday; his age has not been reported, though apparently he died on his birthday.

Back on Easter Sunday, a 27-year-old Indonesian man from the crew of #27 apparently became the youngest person to die of coronavirus in Florida. Because all three victims were foreign nationals they have not been included in the Florida statistics, so some details of their cases remain unclear. Royal Caribbean has refused to comment on these deaths or on how many infected crew remain in Florida hospitals and offshore.

P.P.P.S. The state did eventually cough up a pretty, if inaccessible, PDF dashboard of the day's numbers: cases were up 4%, with 103 new deaths.